Monday, February 23, 2015

40 Year Itch: Oh These Sleepless Nights





“I suppose working with Gram (Parsons) was the most amazing thing that ever happened to me. There was just something very magical about the experience. It was so much fun to just get up there, sing with him, and not worry about carrying a show myself. Everyone paid all this attention to me and told me how good I was and all that. It was really like being some kind of fairytale princess. Somehow that affected me more than all this that’s happening now. Maybe I’m on time delay.”
Emmylou Harris to Cameron Crowe in 1975

     On her first solo album since the death of country-rock legend Gram Parsons, his devastated singing partner,  Emmylou Harris, carried on in the cosmic country vein. Pieces of the Sky, released in February of 1975,  is an eclectic collection of songs. There's a Beatles cover ("For No One") some recent country hits covered ("Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down,"Coat of Many Colors") and an original, "Boulder to Birmingham", dedicated to Parsons. It was Gram who introduced Harris to the Louvin Brothers and to the Everly Brothers' songwriting team, Felice and Boudleaux Bryant. She performs their "Sleepless Nights", a song she and Parson had recorded during the Grievous Angel sessions. You can hear the heartbreak in the simple lines.






1 comment:

  1. Emmylou……. Country angel voice. And that's a beautiful album. Indeed. Her voice is the sound of heart ache. :)

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